News - Page 58

How to aquascape?

Have you heard of Aquascaping? The underwater gardening trend taking the world by storm? If there aren’t enough ways to incorporate plants in your life, you can also garden underwater and it doesn't even involve swimming! Aquascaping is a real art, creating beautiful landscapes with plants, driftwood and fish in a tank. Where to start? Our guide will help you.

National Allotment Week

This year National Allotment Week is all about celebrating the Shared Harvest from our plots. Allotments holders are often overrun with produce throughout the growing season and especially towards the end of the summer. After as much cooking and freezing possible, anything leftover can be shared with others from family and friends to charitable causes. This year that’s what its all about.

How to make a bird-friendly garden

Making our gardens more bird-friendly doesn’t only make us feel good; it helps birds too. With many of our most well-loved garden birds becoming scarce as their habitat disappears, we need to do everything we can to help.

What to do in the garden in August?

August means holidays, and long summer days lounging in the sun. As the early summer blooms fade, there’s a natural pause in the flower garden before the glowing colours of late summer and autumn appear. In the vegetable garden, on the other hand, things are humming, with fruit and veg ripening everywhere you look.

Houseplant of the month: Carnivorous plants

They look like they come out of a fairy tale, with their odd shapes and dazzling (mix of) colours. Yet, carnivorous plants, or otherwise referred to as meat eaters, ensure that insects do not live happily ever after. They lure flies and spiders with their appearance, catch and digest them to obtain sufficient nutrients. With which these houseplants once again prove that nature, just like many fairy tales, is beautiful but relentless.

Houseplant of the month: Carnivorous plants

Tips for watering the garden during summer

Watering the garden during summer can be quite a task, especially if the weather is particularly hot and dry for long spells. If you are growing on sandy soil it can be very hard to retain moisture and if you are growing in containers they can dry out really quickly in hot weather. Watering is essential to keep gardens thriving and as the climate changes and warms up throughout the year, rainwater collection and planting for dryer environments will become very important.

Tips for watering the garden during summer

Guide to feeding your lawn

Our guide to expertly feed your lawn will help you no matter what condition your lawn is currently in. If you have a lawn that is looking tired, brown patches or weeds there is no need to despair because with some TLC and knowledge you can make it look lush and green in no time. If you have a beautiful lawn already, you will want to keep it as green and healthy as possible so you can mow those perfect stripes in. You will need to feed your lawn to ensure it keeps growing well and at the same time you can be on the lookout for diseases or pests - no one wants a mole to destroy the lawn! The little and often approach is the best way to keep on top of the growing lawn and makes it easier to maintain.

Top 6 plants for colour and scent

With so many plants to choose from it can sometimes be difficult to know which ones to plant in your garden. If you pick from our top 6 plants for colour and scent you will be enjoying some of the most beautiful available for your garden.

DIY Ideas: mosaic flower pots

DIY mosaic flower pots are a great way to personalise your gardening accessories and get creative in the garden. Not only is it easy but it can be good fun and also children can get involved and make all kinds of fun patterns, textures and colours. Our ideas below will help you get started and create a real mosaic sparkle in your garden. Your plants can then be potted up and the colours will look fantastic.

Creating your own Butterfly garden

If supermodels were insects, they’d be butterflies – deceptively fragile-looking and impossibly gorgeous, turning heads whenever they appear. But there’s more to butterflies than just good looks. They do sterling work as pollinators, and a thriving butterfly population is a key indicator of a healthy ecosystem rich in biodiversity. Sadly, due to loss of habitat, pesticide use and changing weather patterns, many butterfly species are in decline, so making your garden butterfly-friendly has never been more important.

Home trends: sustainability in interior design

It’s important to consider sustainability in interior design, as we all become far more aware of our environment and the need to live a life where we are responsible for everything we do that impacts our planet. This extends to inside the home as well as our gardens and outside spaces. When we design and decorate it is very important to think about all aspects inside our home and not just that it needs to be aesthetically pleasing but also good for the environment. Think about implementing the below into your interior design projects and you will be putting sustainability at the fore of your home.

Home trends: sustainability in interior design

How to encourage late summer flowers?

It is easy to encourage late summer flowers for as long as possible, all year round, and whilst it can be a little more tricky during the cold winter months, there are definitely ways to extend the flowering season in your garden to as late in the year as possible. We’ve put together these ideas to help you encourage those last summer flowers to enjoy for as long as you can.